A Different Victim
by brightshadowflame
Summary: An alternate ending to the end of City of Fallen Angels. What if Alec had remained on the roof instead of Jace...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Mortal Instruments characters or universe.**

Alec started shaking his head as soon as Jace had muttered, "I'll stay"; there was no way was he staying up here. Alec couldn't say why but he had a bad feeling about it. Besides Jace should probably go down and get some iratzes put on him. God knows he needed them.

'No. You won't.' Alec said. Jace looked up at him, his eyes vacant and cold, and Alec thought he was going to protest, but stopped however when he heard the tone in Alec's voice, 'I'll stay. You look awful, you and Clary – probably Simon too – should get Magnus to look at you, he'll probably be here soon.' Jace shrugged and was the last to disappear into the elevator after Clary who was being helped by Isabelle, and Simon who stiffly followed. Jace looked at none of them, and Alec could see Clary looking at Jace searchingly as the elevator doors closed.

Alec had given a slight smile to Isabelle when she'd looked at him strangely from the elevator doors, but that smile disappeared once the doors closed. Today had be abnormal, even by Shaddowhunter terms. He was exhausted and was struck by short stabs of pain when he took in a breath. He'd probably had some of his ribs smashed in, and went to grab his stele from his belt, but found it wasn't there. He swore, he must have left it with Clary after he'd healed her wounds. No matter, he could go down and grab it off her, but that idea involved a lot of movement that Alec thought he might be too tired to put into action right now. At any rate it wasn't that bad.

Alec sighed and opened up the door onto the roof staring at all wreckage and shuddering when he saw Seb-, no Jonathan's body. He tried to resist the urge to just run over and strangle him with his bear hands, knowing it would hurt Jace, but wanting desperately to murder the bastard for what he did to Max. Max. Alec still thought about him naturally, it had only been a few months, but as the days past it was becoming harder and tougher to just remember his face. Right now it felt like he'd just gone on holiday, not like what had really happened.

Alec edged towards the body, not quite certain what was pushing him to do it. No one in their correct state of mind would want to be anywhere near that creature, but Alec was curious; or that's what he told himself. The body was a strange and ethereal white, and his hair was blond now, the same as Valentines, and was spread out around his head like some kind of demonic halo. He was also dressed in starch, white trousers, which Alec thought was strikingly the wrong colour for him to be dressed in. Black might have been more appropriate! There were marks on the side of his throat, where Simon had sunk his fangs in and drunk his blood. Alec shuddered, fingered the marks on his neck. They were surprisingly warm compared to the rest of the body. This must have probably been horrible for Simon. He realised that he'd started calling the Daylighter by his first name at some point. He hated to admit it, and he'd hardly spoken two words to him, but he found he was starting to become slightly fond of the Daylighter. It was probably because he was only ever around Izzy or Clary and subsequently Jace, so that made the whole of his family thoroughly Simon-ised.

Alec suddenly felt a light tug on his wrist, and quickly looked down to see a white hand with skeletal, long fingers grasped tightly around his wrist. Alec's eyes went wide, but before he could react, he felt a fist collide with his head, and he was out.


	2. Chapter 2

Jace was happy. Happier than he'd been in a long time. He was drained mentally and physically, as well as having more problems than solution to the events of the last few days, but he was alive, as was his family, and more importantly Clary. And after the conversation they'd just had, which admittedly didn't involve a heck of a lot of talking, they were okay. No better than that. Jace smiled, she'd almost made him forgive himself…almost. She'd certainly distracted him a bit.

Jace looked around the suddenly packed lobby. Isabelle was clearly keeping the rest of the Shadowhunters busy. Clary was reassuring and explaining everything to her mother and Luke. Magnus had run in first, face pale and cat eyes a startling bright green, demanding to know from Isabelle if Alec was okay, and had – after her reassurances – remained behind to listen to her explanation. Then there was Jordan who was hugging Maia fiercely, '_apparently everything's forgiven there'_ Jace thought smirking. It was nice to see Jordan smothering something that wasn't Simon. Speaking of which Simon wasn't someone he could see. As soon as he'd gotten into the elevator all he'd thought about had been Clary, and hadn't particularly thought about anyone else. Jace wondered if that had been Alec's plan all along – to make sure they talked. Probably. People never gave Alec enough credit; he was sneaky, but often taken for granted. That is something Jace had learnt rather quickly.

However Jace couldn't see Simon anywhere in the lobby, but one of the doors that said it lead to the pool had been carelessly slung open, and Jace guessed that was where he had gone. Jace thought he should go and find the Vampire before he drowned himself. Not that he could drown, but Jace felt it was the gesture behind it that mattered…well Clary would approve his actions anyway.

'Simon!' Jace shouted out into the changing rooms but got no reply, so he carried on walking through in the direction of the pool. The door for the pool itself looked like it had required a code to open it, but had been forced open by either a demon or Simon.

'Simon!' Jace climbed through the hole that now replaced the door. There was no reply, but Jace didn't need one. Simon was sitting in the middle of the empty pool his eyes closed shut. Apparently the pool wasn't open yet, and wouldn't be filled in until the building had human occupants.

Jace jumped in, not bothering with the steps of the pool. Simon didn't open his eyes and Jace half wondered if the Vampire was asleep. He slowly sat down opposite Simon, studying him carefully. He looked ill, to be blunt; sweat was slick on his face, and his hands were shacking badly. Perhaps it was the effects of Jonathan's blood? He'd looked pretty ill after being forced to drink it, but had come around enough to help save Clary. After that maybe he'd been only standing because of the adrenaline: it wasn't uncommonly heard of. Jace remembered back to when the mark had done its magic before, and Simon had looked pretty bad after that as well.

'Not so sure about your place here. What with the broken door – awful for security by the way – and empty pool, I'd say it's all a bit eerie if you asked me…well I guess you didn't go for the dead demon baby look at least!' Jace said lightly, looking intently at Simon, who looked up, his eyes bloodshot, apparently only now realising he was there.

'Talked to Clary then?' He muttered. Jace nodded.

'Yeah.' Simon looked him in the eye.

'Feel like leaving now?' Jace shook his head.

'Nope, sorry.' Simon sighed, leaning back again against the pool wall.

'Didn't think so. Everyone still out there then, or have they gone up to see Sebastian?'

'No Alec's still up there, and everyone else was occupied, so I wondered where my favourite Downworlder to pester and annoy was, but Magnus started to talk to Iz, so I guess you'll have to do.' Simon laughed, but it sounded unnatural and forced. Jace frowned.

'You don't sound good, and not that you normally look particularly appealing to the eye, but you look dead, which for you is a practical impossibility so please enlighten me?' Simon rolled his eyes.

'I admit I'm not feeling up to going and doing 1000 pushups, or press-ups and whatever, but I'd hardly compare myself to a corpse, besides you don't look so good yourself.' Simon said glaring at Jace.

'Hey I feel a lot better since Isabelle gave me those runes, but something tells me what's wrong with you won't just go away. Magnus should probably have a look at you.' Jace countered for once in his life actually sounding somewhat serious, but before Simon could say anything, the remaining portion of the door was blown off its hinges and hit the wall on the other side of the room with a deafening clang, and Magnus himself stepped through.

'Someone say my name? And which one of you had a hissy fit with the door?' Simon grimaced.

'Sorry.' Magnus shrugged and walked gracefully down the pool steps and into the empty hole.

'We were-' Jace began, but got cut off by Simon's glare, 'I was thinking you should take a look at the Daylighter, because this new deathly green shade doesn't particularly suit him.' Magnus tilted his head towards Jace.

'You talked to Clary then. She's the only thing that could put you into this sort of mood and bring back your lovable insulting self with its twisted sense of humour.' Jace just ignored him, but Simon mumbled under his breath,

'Yeah in full force.' Jace smiled.

'Hey, I'm making up for lost time.' Simon cracked a small, small smile at that.

Right then both Clary and Isabelle walked in looking strangely at the three having come together in the middle of an empty swimming pool. Isabelle's features darkened on seeing Simon, and walked more briskly towards them.

'Have all the adults gone up?' Jace asked very seriously at them both, but only Clary seemed to notice. She noticed everything Jace said.

'No they're waiting for the Silent Brothers to arrive, they want their advice.' Jace nodded his brows knitting together. Clary came and sat down by Jace, Luke's old coat covering what remained of her dress, and leant her head against her shoulder. Isabelle knelt down in front of Simon to his surprise, and looked as him closely placing a hand on his forehead. Simon's eyes were wide and Jace thought that he probably didn't move a muscle no matter how shaky he'd been only moments before.

'You're really hot.' Simon let out a tired smile.

'Thank you, you're not so bad yourself.' Jace snorted, if not only because of how terrible the pretty pitiful joke was. However Isabelle just looked annoyed, taking her hand away and leaning beside him, still focusing on him intently.

'No, you feel really hot, and Vampires aren't exactly meant to feel heat, so this can hardly be a good thing. Are you feeling okay, because you look terrible?' Clary nodded her head, as did Magnus.

'Yeah Simon you look ill. Do you think…maybe Sebastian's blood…? I mean it did contain some of Lilith's own blood and she's one of the- she was one of the most dangerous demons out there.' Clary said softly, worry evident on her face.

'Wait. The Daylighter drank a greater demons blood?' Magnus asked sounding alarmed. Simon nodded slowly, 'Isabelle you left that part out of the story.' Isabelle's eyes had gone wide.

'I-I guess I forgot…'

'It was part of the ritual,' Jace explained, 'Simon was forced to take Sebastian's blood, then he would need blood of a Shadowhunter – me – then he would have killed Simon by drinking all of his blood. So all in all, it would have been quite messy, and not entirely pleasant for any of us.' Jace said his tone completely conversational. Simon and Clary both noted how he'd conveniently left out how it wasn't just any Shaddowhunter blood that was needed, but both said nothing. Isabelle appeared not to have noticed the cover up. Magnus frowned, his face seeming to melt away and show his true age.

'Demon blood is toxic to both Downworlders and the Nephilim alike. Obviously a lower level demon isn't something to be particularly worried about, you won't feel great, but it's relatively harmless, but **the greater demon**? Well I'm surprised you're still standing!' Simon looked shocked, and his skin pallor increased if that was possible, and Isabelle grabbed his hand. A movement, which was strangely out of place from her usual behaviour. Simon looked half surprised by it, but said nothing.

'But there's got to be something we can do? I mean there must be runes or-' Isabelle spluttered.

'Runes only work on Shadowhunters Iz.' Jace interjected softly. Clary looked worriedly to Magnus.

'But there's something else you can do? Right?' Magnus nodded slowly looking incredibly interested in one of the pale pool tiles.

'Yes, perhaps, but as I can't use any sort of runes, and even if I could they can't be used so that is rather…well problematic. I mean Shadowhunter runes might have made it easier but…' Magnus then shrugged his shoulders as if to say, _what can you do_.

All the constant mention of runes made Clary realise. She still had Alec's stele on her. She'd forgotten to give it back after he'd healed her, too pre-occupied by Jace, she'd put it into Luke's jacket and brought it out now, weighing it and fingering it.

'So what are you going to do with me now?' Simon asked sounding tired and putting his free hand through his hair.

'Well I'm not going to start casting any spells here, it's cold and uncomfortable, so it won't do you or I any good. Plus it's disgusting! I think I saw about 100 mutant rats back there, and that with the dead demon children in the other room is really making this place less hygienic than the NY subway – which believe me is hard.'

'Well why can't you come back to the Institute, we've got everything you need there?' Isabelle blurted out, her voice sounding shaky and panicked. Simon raised his eyebrows.

'The Institute Izzy? That'll do more harm than good don't you think?' Isabelle just blushed realising the error of her words.

'Why not go straight to Jordan's? I'm sure he won't mind, he's meant to be protecting you anyway. Besides I think he's probably more concerned with Maia right at this second, and it's only just around the block. Closer than Magnus's place anyway.' Jace commented, whilst Simon nodded and Magnus just shrugged noncommittally.

' Fine. Just so you know, I'm only doing this for Alec.' Everyone rolled their eyes at that, Clary still playing gently with Alec's stele, Jace noticed and raised his eyebrows.

'Hey isn't that his?' Clary didn't realise what he was talking about at first, but nodded when she saw what he was looking at.

'Yeah it is, he gave it to me when he healed me, I just forgot to give it back.' Jace frowned.

'We should probably go give it to him. He might need it. Maybe then we can all head back to Jordan's?' Isabelle nodded standing up.

'Alright, we'll wait in the lobby. Alec can come with us then.' Simon tried to protest.

'Do you all really-' but was cut off by Clary.

'Yes, we all want to make sure you're alright.' Jace snorted, and Clary glared at him, but even Simon could see he didn't mean it, and for the first time Simon felt that perhaps Jace wasn't worried about him just for Clary's sake.


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone stood up, Jace offering Clary his hand. Simon struggled to get up even with Isabelle's help, and he staggered, one bone white, shaking hand trying to grab the side of the pool.

Jace let go of Clary, rolling his eyes, and slung Simon's free arm over his shoulder. They then moved surprisingly quickly into the lobby, with Jace dumping Simon non-too gently onto one of the plush chairs in the middle of the room. Sounds of horror could be heard from the room full of dead children. Apparently none of them had headed up to Alec yet.

Jace and Clary said they'd go up and give Alec the stele, then wait with him. It **was** a bit of a creepy place to be left alone in.

Both of them climbed into the lift and unlike before there was almost no tension or awkwardness. As soon as the doors closed they were in each others arms, kissing wildly and franticly. After a few seconds they stopped and Clary smiled softly at Jace, a smile that he gladly returned.

'You don't know how much I wanted to do that down there, but I didn't think the others would appreciate it.' Clary laughed lightly. Jace had rarely seen Clary look so happy, it was a beautiful sight for him, better than the best views in Alicante or any other place for that matter.

'No, maybe not.' At that moment the lift doors opened and Clary and Jace untangled themselves.

'Alec!' Jace called out, but didn't get a reply. Jace called out again, but still didn't get a reply.

'Maybe he's out on the roof and can't hear you?' Clary suggested. Jace shrugged, but both of them realised that something was wrong. It didn't feel right.

They walked up the steps and through the open door, and felt the cool night air on their skin. Immediately the saw the devastation and wreckage of what could have been a beautiful roof terrace.

What Jace saw next made his blood freeze, which honestly didn't happen very often.

Alec was lying on the ground unconscious, his black hair covering the blood that could be seen falling down his forehead. But worst of all was what was standing over him. There was a long deep slash on his arm, and drinking the blood urgently from the wound was Sebastian.

It was a horrific sight, and Sebastian looked more like a demon than Jace could ever remember him looking before. His movements were more animalistic than human, and his eyes had changed from black to a startling shade of scarlet.

Jace couldn't move, and it seemed that for the moment Sebastian hadn't noticed them. Jace didn't know what to do, which was rare for him too. Clary however seemed to have no trouble; maybe it was because after the events of the day, nothing could surprise her enough to remain silent.

'Alec!' She shouted horror evident in her voice. Sebastian's face shot up and he smiled a snake like smile. Jace still couldn't move, but Clary ran forward. Sebastian backed away, still griping Alec's arm tightly, and let out an animalistic growl, which shocked both Jace and Clary.

'Let him go Sebastian.' Clary said urgently her voice shaking slightly.

'Nooo!' Sebastian howled. _Okay it's official, _Jace thought, _he's officially lost it. He was crazy before, but this is_- 'And my name is not Sebastian! I'm Jonathan Morgenstern!' Clary tried to move forward again, but Sebastian jumped back dragging Alec's body with him. Both Clary and Jace were horribly aware that they had no weapons whatsoever on them.

'Jonathan please let him go! What do you want him for?' Clary pleased, but was clearly ignored. He simply let out another growl and grabbed Alec's whole body, not wanting to let him go obviously. He edged towards the edge of the building, and both Clary and Jace could see what was going to happen, and terror appeared slowly on Clary's face.

'No.' Was all Jace managed to quietly get out before Sebastian plummeted over the edge, Alec being dragged with him.

Jace ran towards the edge cursing himself for regaining movement **now**. He could see that Sebastian had survived the fall, as Jace hadn't doubted he would, and was now standing upright. That was all it took for Jace to go plunging after him.

As he fell Jace could faintly hear Clary screaming his name, but paid little attention. He had to get Alec, he was half afraid that he was too late, but didn't want to take that chance. It would be his fault if Alec died. It would tear the Lightwoods apart, to loose both Max and Alec because of Jace's faux family.

Jace landed hard on the pavement below, and groaned feeling the impact shake his whole body. But he was okay; well there were no broken bones at least. He didn't have any time to recover though, as Sebastian was already moving, carrying Alec with him.

Sebastian was moving fast despite the weight, and even though they could sometimes match each other in speed, apparently today wasn't one of those days.

Jace fought to keep moving the reality of possibly loosing his adoptive brother enough of an incentive to keep him running. Sebastian moved fast down different alleyways and streets his movements deliberate; he clearly wasn't trying to confuse Jace, and knew exactly where he was going. That was worrying more than anything else, it was almost like this had been planned, but that was ridiculous! What could Alec have to do with this?

Sebastian kept moving, and now Jace thought if there was much further to go he'd loose them.

They turned a corner and Jace skidded, sliding around it. Sebastian let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark than anything remotely human.

There was a church right in front of them and Jace could tell that was what they were heading for. It was a glamour-ed building. Nothing looked like that in this part of New York without looking out of place. Sebastian headed up the steps, the doors opening seemingly automatically for him – perhaps because of the demon blood in Sebastian, because as soon as Jace came close the doors slammed shut.

Jace panicked banging wildly on the doors to no avail. He felt his heart beat 100 miles an hour, but then he remembered he had Alec's stele in his pocket (he'd taken it off Clary at some point). His hand shacking slightly he drew an opening rune on the door. It wasn't one from one of the books, but one he'd seen Clary draw once; an ancient one before the books were even written.

The rune glowed golden on the door before letting out a noise like a bomb, and blowing open the large steel doors. The church was practically empty inside, dimply lit by a few simple metal chandeliers creating eerie shadows, except for an Alter sitting in the middle of the church. It wasn't ordinary that's for sure, with naked dead corpses and tortured bodies carved everywhere on it, as well as a language that Jace didn't understand, but it looked like something demonic.

It was empty, no one was there, but to Jace's horror there were blue sparks falling to the ground in the centre of the hall, evidence of recent portal activity.

Jace cursed and let out a loud scream of frustration. How could this have happened? Why was it Alec? Why not him, Simon or even Clary? They would have made sense, but Alec made none; no sense at all. Jace felt like hitting or kicking something, but the church was decidedly void of anything to maim.

He headed to the centre where the portal had been to see if there was anything there to hint at where Sebastian might have taken him. Jace saw nothing at first, but looking closer he saw a crumpled piece of paper. Glancing at it someone would just have thought it was a piece of rubbish but Jace – and evidently Sebastian – knew better than that, Sebastian would have deliberately dropped it, he was smarter than to leave anything unless he wanted Jace to find it.

Jace unfolded it, and was surprised to be faced with Romanian. That confirmed to him more than anything else could, that this was intended for him. Surprisingly few Shaddowhunters spoke Romanian, and Jace guessed it was a skill that Valentine had tried to enforce on both of his sons.

Jace's Romanian was a bit rusty, but even he could see that these were numbers written out carefully by hand. What for Jace didn't know. He sighed rubbing his hands against his face. He needed to get to Clary and the others to tell them, especially Isabelle, what had happened to Alec.

He slowly headed out of the church, looking at it more closely now. Above the blown out doors of the church, there was written very clearly a name, "Church of Batna". Jace was shocked at first. A church named after the greater demon; it was very similar to the "Church of Talto", and at one point there had been a cult here too, or maybe the one here and at "Talto" were connected. He couldn't be sure right now.

Jace glanced down at his watch it was 2am, it must have been about an hour ago that he'd been in the lift with Clary, and he felt exhausted. He'd also managed to run an extra 10 minuets out of his way, but luckily Jordan's flat wasn't actually too far away, he'd probably be there in less than 20 minuets.

Jace started walking quickly down the deserted New York streets, his elated mood from an hour ago vanishing, and being replaced by a sense of dread at what was to come.


End file.
